I've been on a Dinotopia kick as of late, and you guys know it. As such, I'm going to get right to the point of today's review. We're taking a look at Dinotopia: First Flight by James Gurney.
First Flight is set thousands of years in Dinotopia's past. It was an age when Dinotopia was divided among several warring empires. In particular, there is the Empire of Poseidos. They are technologically advanced, with everything from robots to flying cars. They also hate dinosaurs and are seeking to replace them with machines. The story follows a boy named Gideon Altaire. Unlike most of Poseidos, he loves dinosaurs and is fascinated by them. His life changes forever when he takes in an injured pterosaur named Razzamult. Gideon soon finds himself wrapped up in a plot to save the dinosaurs of Dinotopia from certain destruction.
The framing device is that Gideon's story is a scroll that Will Denison is reading in the library of Waterfall City. This is the shortest of the main four Dinotopia books, but it certainly packs a punch. I loved how First Flight expanded upon the worldbuilding of Dinotopia. We see that there was a time when things weren't so idyllic and utopian. One of the big themes is how Poseidos is so obsessed with technology that they've forgotten the importance of the natural world. Apparently, they've given up actual food in favor of nutrition pellets. The message is there, and yet Poseidos certainly looks glorious thanks to Gurney's artwork. I loved how science fiction elements like robots and flying cars were incorporated into the world of Dinotopia. I also loved how all of the machines were modeled off of living creatures. It gave them a nice aesthetic.
The generally aesthetic of Poseidos kind of reminded me of Star Wars. This is amusing, as First Flight was published in 1999. That was the same year The Phantom Menace came out. Back in the review of A Land Apart from Time, I noted how George Lucas homaged the parade in Sauropolis with the parade on Naboo the end of The Phantom Menace. It certainly makes for an amusing parallel.
One thing I noticed is that the military officials all wear hats vaguely similar to the one that Lee Crab wears. Now, consider that Lee Crab hates dinosaurs, and that the Poseidons were trying to commit genocide against the dinosaurs. Hmm, I wonder what Gurney could possibly be suggesting?
First Flight does have a bit of an anti-technology message. However, unlike The World Beneath, I feel like it was more organic to the story. It is also mitigated somewhat by one of Gideon's allies being a robot. In hindsight, it is rather amusing that the Skybax that Gideon bonds with is named Avatar. We've got a male hero from a technologically advanced society who joins a less advanced, but more in-tune with nature, society and defends them from the invading technology users. Oh, and he defeats a large flying machine with the help of his loyal pterosaur, and the use of a primitive weapon via his friends. When Gideon makes it to mainland Dinotopia he befriends some lemurs and a mammal-like reptile from the Permian. It is always good to see some non-Ice Age mammals get some representation, and the same goes for pre-dinosaur reptiles.
If this book does have a weakness, it's that it is shorter than the other books in the main series. Gideon's story clocks in at a mere sixty pages, less than half the length of the other books. Granted the 20th Anniversary edition of First Flight does mitigate this somewhat by including a fair bit of bonus material. Still, even with all that the book sits at 112 pages, compared to the 192 pages of the other books.
Speaking of the bonus material, let's discuss it. We get a mostly prose bonus story about a hero named Blake Terrapin. Like Gideon, he grew disillusioned with life in Poseidos and traveled to mainland Dinotopia to defend the dinosaurs. It is written in present tense, and feels a bit like a script for a book that never materialized. Still, it does help to flesh-out Dinotopia's past, and we do learn some very interesting things. For example, apparently Waterfall City began life as a military fortress. During this age, know as the Heroic Age, Dinotopia was divided into four empires. We already know about Poseidos, and Chandara will be important in the next book. We also have Armakia, the forerunners of those who live in the high mountains with the Ice Age mammals. Finally, there is Pelledrine; they're a tribal confederation that has befriended the predators of the Rainy Basin. Blake goes to train with them.
At first I thought that it was a bit odd that Blake dress like a European knight, given that his story is set over 4000 years in the past. Then I remembered back to A Land Apart From Time, and how it mentioned various people who left Dinotopia over the years. It isn't that he looks like a medieval knight, it's that knights look like Dinotopians. I should have mentioned this before, but I liked how the buildings in Poseidos have a vaguely Ancient Indian look to them.
We also get a series of sepia-tone sketches that, while certainly interesting, also hint that there was going to be more to this book than what we got. In fact, we also get some concept art that seems to support this hypothesis. I wonder if there was pressure on Gurney to rush this book before it was ready. Don't get me wrong, what we got was great, but it could have been even better.
This all kind of gives the book the feel of a lost historical document. A lot of times, historians will have to deal with primary sources having gaps, or only being preserved in fragments. It's like looking at a dried-up riverbed to try and determine what a river was like, and where it went. You have to make educated guess, and sometimes accept that you might never truly know the answers. This gives an air of authenticity to First Flight, but it is still a bit frustrating.
Well, I think that should do it. First Flight is a good book, but it is a bit on the short side. It feels like it could have been even better if it had been expanded properly. I hope you guys have been enjoying our look at Dinotopia as much as I have. I will see you guys next time.
You guys seemed to really like my review of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. I'm certainly glad to hear that. Big thanks to Jordan Harbour of Twilight Histories for sharing it. I've been wanting to take a look at the other Dinotopia books, and now is as good a time as any. We're taking a look at Dinotopia: The World Beneath by James Gurney.
Arthur and Will Denison have been adjusting well to their new lives on the island of Dinotopia. Will is continuing to have adventures with his fellow Skybax riders. Meanwhile, Arthur is preparing to mount an expedition to the mysterious World Beneath. It is the caverns where the ancestors of the Dinotopians survived the K-T extinction. It may also hold the key to answering several questions about the early days of Dinotopia. One thing is for certain, the Denisons aren't over with adventures just yet.
There's a slight change in the format of this book. The first book was told in first-person as Arthur and Will's journal. This book switches to a third-person perspective. As I've said, Arthur and Will go on their own separate adventures, but their paths do eventually cross.
I've said that the Dinotopia books really evoke a lot of those 19th century adventure novels. This influence is very strong in this book. The entrance to the World Beneath is located underwater, and we do get some scenes evocative of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We also got some great appearances by various prehistoric sea creatures such as dunkleosteus, leopleurodon and the creatures of the Burgess Shale. Once we get to the World Beneath it all feels a bit evocative of Journey to the Center of the Earth, with just a pinch of Indiana Jones.
From this expedition we learn that Dinotopia was once divided into many different empires. One of these, Poseidos, was actually quite technologically advanced. However, their hubris and love of machines proved to be their undoing. Eventually the island of Poseidos sank into the sea, and served as the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. The thinking is that Poseidon sunk Atlantis, and Poseidos sounds like Poseidon, so Poseidos inspired Atlantis.
Unfortunately, this leads us to my biggest issue with this big. There is a pretty obvious anti-technology and anti-science message running throughout this book. Arthur has been tinkering and building machines throughout the book, but they almost always end in disaster. Naturally, this requires him to be saved by friendly dinosaurs. Similarly, one of the big downfalls of Poseidos was how they tried to replace their dinosaurs with machines. The message seems to be "you can have dinosaurs, or you can have robots, but you can't have both." This is particularly odd because the Dinotopians weren't shown to be Luddites before this. Moreover, Arthur was always treated with respect and admiration for being a man of science.
Arthur get a love interest in the form of Oriana Nascava. On the one hand, I'm glad to see that Arthur is moving on from his wife's death and finding new love. On the other hand, Oriana contributes to the anti-technology message. She constantly poo-poos his idea about reviving Poseidon technology, because who needs robots when you have dinosaurs. To be fair, other than these moments of pontificating, she wasn't too bad. Meanwhile, Will is doing well with his own love interest Sylvia.
I guess my problem with the anti-technology message is that way it presents a black and white view of things. Well, that and how it ignores the ways that technology has improved our lives. All the lives saved thanks to advances in medicine, the revolutions in agriculture that have fed millions, and countless other great things are thanks to technology. Moreover, wouldn't the dinosaurs like for their workloads to be lightened a bit? The implication seems to be that the robots would inevitably replace the dinosaurs. It would have been better if the message was less "technology is evil" and more "technology can be used for good or evil, so learn to use it wisely." The book didn't even need to have a message. A Land Apart From Time didn't have a message, the plot was mostly just there to explore the worldbuilding, and it was perfect just the way it was.
Also, Lee Crab was hired to help-out with the expedition. Really, Arthur, just what were you expecting to happen when you hired Lee Crab? I know it seemed like a good idea at the time, but still.
Still, if you ignore the clunky message, The World Beneath is a pretty fun adventure book. Hey, it's a James Gurney book, so you are guaranteed to get tons of gorgeous illustrations to go along with the text. I probably should have mentioned this before, but the dinosaurs survived in the World Beneath thanks to sunstones. Sunstones, as their name suggest, are capable to generating light, but they can also be used to power machines. If you squint very, very hard you might be able to see evidence that the sunstones are what gave the dinosaurs their sentience. So, if the World Beneath is where the Dinotopian dinosaurs came from, then where did the Ice Age mammals come from? For that matter, there's also several animals, particularly sea animals, from before the dinosaurs. And how does plate tectonics play into this and...you know what, I'm not going to question it. I love Dinotopia and its menagerie of creatures too much to serious question the logic of it all.
Similarly, the books take place in the 1860s, but Arthur knows the names of various dinosaur that hadn't been discovered yet. For example, tyrannosaurus wasn't discovered until 1902. Then again, given that's it's already odd that the dinosaurs are referred to by their scientific names, it's a bit of a moot point.
I did enjoy how this book expanded upon the history and mythology of Dinotopia. I'm especially intrigued by the legendary King Ogthar; he was said to have been half-human and half-dinosaur, and brought peace and stability to Dinotopia. We get hints that there was a time when Dinotopia wasn't so idyllic and utopian. I also loved how the inhabitants of the Rainy Basin weren't shown in a bad light just because of their lifestyle. In fact, a group of tyrannosaurs even helps to save the day.
And here’s a fun fact, The World Beneath played a role in the history of paleoart. It was one of the first, if not the first, depictions of giganotosaurus in pop culture. In fact, James Gurney consulted with Rodolfo Coria, the paleontologist who named giganotosaurus and argentinosaurus. In fact, Gurney made the first portrait of giganotosaurus. Gurney asked Coria about what he should do for colors. Coria quipped “Color? That’s your problem.” The moral of the story is, don’t stress about your paleoart. You’re in good company.
Well, I don't think there's much more to add. The Worth Beneath is certainly a flawed book, but I still had a good time overall. And hey, we got plenty of great artwork to look at. I think I'll be keeping up this Dinotopia kick. I will see you guys next time.
